In an ugly match, FC Helsingør were knocked out of the cup in the worst possible fashion on Wednesday evening. AaB scored two goals around the 90th minute, and turned out the lights for a Helsingør side that had otherwise led most of the match.
Both teams started the match at a high tempo, with a slight edge to the home side, but already when a little under four minutes had been played FCH had the first shot, as Tobias Christensen struck from outside the box, but the effort was blocked. A minute later Adan Mohammad got free on the left side, but instead of playing the ball the winger finished somewhat selfishly, and Jores Okore could get back and block.
After 11 minutes it was AaB’s turn to get a shot. A deflected ball was won in midfield, and Edinson Flores drove forward with the ball and shot, but Mikkel Bruhn got down and saved the attempt.
Two minutes later Frederik Bay threw in a long throw, Adnan Mohammad dribbled up through the middle and shot hard, but Rinne in the AaB goal got a hand to the ball and pushed it over the bar. A good chance for the little dribbler.
FC Helsingør pressed well in this phase of the match, and after 19 minutes it paid off. Good build-up down the left flank between Bay and Adnan ended with the ball being played through to Tobias ”Toby” Christensen, who finished decisively. Okore tried again to block the shot, but got his foot to it awkwardly, and it skimmed into the goal past a helpless Rinne.
0-1 FC Helsingør
FCH dropped a little in tempo after the goal, and AaB swarmed around Bruhn’s goal without it becoming truly dangerous, but FC Helsingør had difficulty keeping hold of the ball and stringing passes together during this period of the match.
But it still took 36 minutes of the half before AaB managed a shot. The ball was again driven forward through the middle, and it ended with a half-baked long shot, which Bruhn could catch safely.
Five minutes before half-time AaB had their biggest chance. It was symptomatic of AaB’s first half that it took a corner kick. The ball was played into the box and headed on by an AaB player, but Jores Okore could not get properly to the ball, despite being very free, and headed upward instead. The attempt did, however, ignite the home side, who pressed on at the end of the half, with a couple of reasonably big chances for both Thellufsen and Flores to follow. But AaB could not finish the job, and FC Helsingør could go into the break with a narrow lead, after a not especially well-played half from either team.
The second half started poorly for FCH. After only a couple of minutes Nicolas Mortensen was tackled and twisted his knee on the way down. The striker had to be substituted by Brazilian Leiria. While AaB had the numerical advantage, they started an attack through the middle. AaB’s Yann Rolim, who had come on at the start of the second half, shot hard and accurately just outside the box, forcing Mikkel Bruhn into a top-class save right by the post. AaB’s best opportunity in the match up to that point.
AaB pressed on, and the Helsingør players mostly tried to get away on counters. After an hour the pulse rose sharply on the Helsingør bench, when Ricki Olsen went into a duel with Safranko in the box by the byline. The AaB player went to ground, but referee Jakob Kehlet waved play on, despite the wild protests of the AaB fans. The slow-motion replay clearly showed, however, that it was a shoulder challenge, and the no-call was therefore correct.
The next ten minutes saw the match swing back and forth a bit. AaB tried to come down the flanks, and FCH were most dangerous through the middle, but despite crosses into the box, and an attempt from distance by Toby, neither team could deliver the decisive blow, and both teams had difficulty building any structured play.
After 76 minutes, Safranko was very close to getting highest on a cross into the box, but a well-playing Daniel Jørgensen got in front at the last moment, and headed the ball away in front of the AaB player’s nose. From the resulting corner, AaB were very close to scoring after a huge scramble in the six-yard box, but the referee correctly blew for a foul on Mikkel Bruhn in the situation.
The next ten minutes were marked by substitutions, dead balls, and two tired teams who had difficulty keeping possession and finding their teammates with passes. The match hung by a thread, and hearts were in mouths. Two minutes before the 90th minute it was very, very close to going wrong for Helsingør. From a corner, Jannik Pohl suddenly stood completely free at the near post, but inexplicably he headed the ball wide of the goal instead.
When the clock reached 89 minutes, it was no longer going the visitors’ way from Helsingør. A corner was cleared out of the box and landed at Yann Rolim, who struck it hard and low, and the ball sped through a large crowd of friends and foes, but no one got a foot to it, and then it flew into the net
1-1 AaB
And then it went completely wrong a minute later. AaB attacked down the right flank, and the cross was driven low into the box. XXX finished, and the ball hit the post and went back into play. Unfortunately it fell to a completely free Edinson Flores, who curled it into the top right corner.
2-1 AaB.
The two goals were a body blow for the Helsingør players, and AaB were closer to extending the lead than FCH were to equalizing. Thus it was the AaB players who could raise their arms at the final whistle and look forward to a quarter-final in the cup. FC Helsingør, on the other hand, are done for this year, and can concentrate on the mission Superliga, where Lyngby already await on Saturday.
FCH: Bruhn, Bay, Jørgensen, S. Henriksen, R. Olsen, Mohammad, P. Olsen, Ohlander, Christensen, Stückler, Mortensen.
Substitutes: Leiria, Hegaard, Johannsen
Photo: Claus Birch, clausbirch.dk
